AFFORDABLE 2D/3D CAD SOFTWARE THAT IS EXTREMELY POWERFUL AND EASY TO USE
ViaCAD 2D/3D offers precision design tools for beginning to intermediate CAD software users. It allows you to create in 2D or 3D and quickly toggle between views. Our price to performance ratio blows the competition away. Amateur users will be thrilled by professional-looking results, while professionals will love how budget-friendly this version of ViaCAD is.
VIACAD 2D/3D CAN HELP YOU DESIGN PROJECTS SUCH AS:
- Architectural drawings
- Remodeling plans
- Invention prototypes
- 3D printer projects
- Mechanical drawings
- Interior decorating plans
- Furniture design
- Jewelry making
- Musical instruments
- Objects for use in video game development
- Graphics and technical illustrations
- Classroom, science fair, and robotics club projects
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COMPATIBILITY AND FILE SHARING
ViaCAD software plays nice with others. ViaCAD is compatible with AutoCAD® with up-to-date DWG import and export capabilities. So your team will be able to work together without forcing everyone to be on the same brand of CAD software.
ViaCAD is also compatible with over a dozen popular CAD and Graphics formats, so you’ll be able to deliver files that can be opened and edited by users of other popular design software. In our newest release (version 12) you can import PDF and Adobe Illustrator files, and be able to import/export SketchUp 2019 and Collada files.
- ViaCAD provides compatibility with AutoCAD® DWG files
- DXF/DWG versions from R12 to 2019
- STL Import/Export for 3D printing
- SVG Import and Export
- 3MF Import & Export
- VMRL 2.0 Texture Support
- OBJ Texture Support
- Adobe Illustrator® Import
- PDF Import
- SketchUp 2019 Import/Export
- Collada™ (DAE) Import/Export
- Complete support for Metric and Imperial units
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VIACAD 2D/3D IS PACKED WITH 3D MODELING AND 2D DRAFTING TOOLS
Make your designs come to life with our powerful 3D CAD software. Begin exploring the powerful world of 3D mesh modeling! ViaCAD provides solid modeling technology found in many higher-end products. There is behind-the-scenes programming that connects 2D and 3D, so that you can edit 2D profiles used to create 3D objects and the 3D shape will automatically update.
- Powerful 3D design tools including mesh, surface, and solid modeling
- 3D editing tools such as blending, chamfering, and shelling
- Complete design tool with extrusions, Booleans, and surface modeling.
- Precise geometry suitable for ‘concept to manufacturing’
- Automatically generate 2D drawings from 3D models
- Tools to create 3D from 2D shapes
- Over 275 tools for 2D drafting (text, dimensions, points, lines, arcs, etc.)
- 3D printing verification tools
- And much more!
INTUITIVE DESIGN AND EDITING UTILITIES
Drawing precisely is easy with ViaCAD! We have designed it to be user friendly and intuitive to work with.
The LogiCursor™ anticipates your next action and guides your cursor to potential point selections in the drawing.
The Gripper adds drag and drop capabilities to make editing designs easy breezy.
Customizable Grids add another level of ease by providing precision drag and drop in rectangular, polar (circular), and isometric layouts.
3D PRINTING TOOLS
ViaCAD 2D/3D includes 3D printing tools to prepare and validate your designs to make them 3D printer ready.
3D PRINT CHECK
Checks for print viability, displaying warnings or errors to the user.

SURFACE NORMALS CHECK
Facet normals define the inside and outside areas of a part. If facet normals are pointing the wrong way, the 3D printer may have problems creating the part. This will check for problems and we have several commands that can help you fix it.

OVERHANG ANALYSIS
This will help you visually inspect modeling areas that may require structural support for 3D printing. Meshes, surfaces, and solids facets normals are compared to the work plane direction. Angles that are less or equal to 45 degrees are highlighted as red.

WALL THICKNESS ANALYSIS
This tool provides a means to visually inspect modeling areas that may be too thin for 3D printing. Meshes, surfaces, and solids facets are examined using ray intersections.

PREVIEW SLICES
This interface will help you to slice models given a direction and thickness. The dialog box allows for animation through the slices and single-stepping. Use to verify that a part has closed, non-overlapping sections, a requirement for 3D printing.

AUTO POSITION
The Auto Position tool translates the model to the positive x, y coordinate system at z=0.

SUPPORT STRUCTURE
Manually adds geometry to support material as it is created by the 3D printer. Support structures controls, include Attach Radius, Midpoint Radius, Base Radius, Base Thickness, and Drag base and midpoints to modify structure location.

SHOW PRINTER VOLUME
Toggles the boundary of the default 3D Printer. The volume is defined within the Printer Definitions dialog box.
PRINTER DEFINITIONS
Sets key parameters of the 3D printer, including length, width, and height of the volume accessible by the printer. The parameters in the Printer Definitions dialog box are used for commands such as 3D Print Check and Auto Position.
3D DESIGN ADVANCEMENTS
SPLIT MESH
This tool will divide a mesh into two portions based on a cutting plane. Split Mesh is an ideal tool for those working with facetted data along with 3D printing manufacturing processes.
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MESH BOOLEANS
This advancement provides a means to add or remove material from a mesh body. Previous versions only allowed Boolean operations on ACIS based solids. Now with the introduction of mesh Booleans, you can add/remove material imported from STL, OBJ, 3DS, and SketchUp.
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WEIGHT AND VOLUME TABLES
Whether you’re designing an aircraft, automobile, or picnic table, weight is key control parameter in a design.Tracking the weight of materials is a key control parameter in design. V12 introduces a new Bill of Material (BOM) attribute specific for creating a summed weight table.
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DRAFTING AND ANNOTATION UPDATES
BEST FIT LINE AND BEST FIT CIRCLE
Great for tracing precise curves over rough sketches. This tool will “best fit” a line or circle from a sample collection of points.
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ANGULAR TOLERANCE UPDATES
The Angular Tolerance interface has been updated to dynamically provide input from the Inspector dialog box.
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USABILITY IMPROVEMENTS
SHOW/HIDE FACE
The Show/Hide Face tool will hide faces within a part enabling access and visibility into the internal representations of complex models.
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SAVE LAYERS WITH VIEW
Now you have the ability to save layers associated with view orientations.
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REPEAT PREVIOUS COMMAND
This “right click” feature will save you lots of time by maintaining a list of last-used drawing commands. Select an item in the list to quickly change the current tool.
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INTEROPERABILITY UPDATES
Now you can work with file types from these other programs:
- PDF Import
- Adobe Illustrator Import
- SketchUp 2020 Import/Export
- Collada (DAE) Import/Export